His gaze fixated on the goat head. More specifically, he was looking at where it was connected to the lion's back. The idea was nothing short of reckless, and one wrong move could end up killing him instead. But he couldn't think of anything else that he could do in this scenario, it was his only, most 'logical' choice at getting out of this alive.
"System, how low can my mana get?"
[Once it reaches -1000, all of your body parts will cease to function. However, at your current condition, reaching -500 is considered dangerous.]
"That's still plenty of spells." Theodore thought to himself before shifting his injured body into a more relaxed position. He took a deep breath before conjuring three magic circles.
[Ice Magic: Frost Spear]
<>
Each of them costs fifty mana points to use, bringing him quite low on stock. He didn't care though and shot the three icicles towards the Chimera.
The beast roared and breathed fire again, the line of flame collided with the spears and melted them away in seconds. However, this was all within Theodore's calculations.
Another magic circle appeared behind the Chimera and a large pike propelled itself into the area connecting the goat's head and the lion's body. Blood seeped through the wounds as the spear embedded itself into the flesh.
The monster screamed in agony while all heads turned towards its wound, completely forgetting that Theodore was still on top of the tree. He watched as the snake and the lion tried to calm the panicking goat down as it was making it difficult for the lion to properly move.
Theodore didn't waste these precious seconds and immediately summoned another circle.
<>
[Frost Spear]
A frozen bolt appeared on top of the Chimera and fell down, attempting to skewer the lion's head next. However, it immediately sensed the danger and pushed itself sideways even while struggling with the goat's head.
Even though the attack had missed its intended target, it continued falling and impaled into the left paw instead causing it to roar out in pain.
"That works."
Theodore mentally prepared himself for the pain that's to come. As he's conjuring up another spell, cool air radiated from his body while the surrounding area began to frost up. The Chimera was alarmed at the sudden drop of temperature but their injuries prevented them from fleeing.
"Great Lord of the Arctic." He started his incantation while staring at the beast below, seeing the horrified expression on the three head's faces. It was a rare sight to witness, since usually the monsters don’t show fear to anything other than themselves, and Theo intended to savor every second of it.
He would've smirked if he could. "May your presence freeze all that is not yet your domain. Descend and cast this land of life into eternal winter.” The wind howled as if responding to his incantation and the magic circle in front of him began to glow fiercely, The Chimera could only sit and watch as its body began to freeze and ice blocks formed on its limbs.
The snake was the first head affected by the spell, it hissed in pain, as if trying to ask the other two for help, however nothing could be done about it and it would eventually breathe its last breath after only thirty seconds of struggle.
While icicles and frost formed around the area, the rest of the Chimera stared up at Theodore with hatred in their gaze. Not long after, a freezing wind swept over the lion’s body, accompanied by ice chains that rose from the ground around it. The beast didn’t struggle and merely stood there, accepting its faith and letting the chains wrapped around it, freezing the skin and causing endless agony before it eventually went down as well.
[You killed a Greek Chimera. Gained 200,000 (x3) Exp.]
[Level Up! You’re now Level 27!]
"Ah, that's unfortunate, I didn't reach level thirty."
Just as Theodore was about to open his status window, another notification rang out, this time with the System’s voice.
[You’ve successfully cleared the Hidden Quest: “Levels Don’t Matter”. You’ll be rewarded with a 3x Experience Points buff for the next 5 Days and a new skill.]
“Hidden quest?” Theodore’s interest had piqued the moment he heard the word ‘new skill’. “Killing the Chimera was the quest?”
[Negative. The quest’s objective was to kill a gate creature with at least a 20 Level difference.]
After understanding the source of his rewards, he called his attribute window and almost immediately a screen appeared in front of him.
< Species: King Cobra (6 Meters) (Evolutions Available)
Description: When your Hit Points fall below 50% you’ll have the option to activate this skill. When used, you’ll be given the ‘Tenacious’ buff which will temporarily increase your Attack, Speed, and Defense by 20 Points while also allowing you to continuously use your mana even while it's already reached negative points. After ten minutes of usage, the skill will deactivate and you’ll instead be given a 30% decrease to the three buffed stats for an hour.
Bonus Effect: [Locked]>>
Theodore didn’t like the harsh drawbacks of the skill, but in the end he still had this skill to thank for considering that he felt fine despite his mana points being in the 'dangerous zone' the System was talking about.
“I’m still not nearly as strong enough…” He thought with disappointment, he was so confident earlier when he’d beaten the Lesser Hydra and the Drake, however this encounter with the Chimera was his wake-up-call that his current strength is still nothing compared to the rest of the gate monsters.
“In the end, I still relied on Ice Magic instead of my strength…What if I faced something that’s immune to it next time?”
He shook his head and got rid of those thoughts before they could distract him any further. “Invest the four skill points into Defense.” He’d learned his lessons now and he should get to work putting them to good use.
Theo slowly slithered down from the tree, careful not to hurt himself due to the injuries, he made his way towards the Chimera corpse before activating ‘Ambitious Snake’. The large snake appeared once again from his form and swallowed the beast whole, causing his own stomach to slightly swollen up. The light silhouette would dispersed into smaller particles once the skill had ended.
.
.
.
He rested in between the bushes while he waited for the Chimera to digest. With the help of the System, his bleeding had stopped and his mana regenerated to a safe 0 points after only around a few hours of rest. Although the blood-soaked claw marks were still there spanning the entire length of his body. He would need to heal it the natural way or use a skill to do so.
Suddenly, the System's voice sounded in his mind.
[The Greek Chimera has been digested. Showing consumable skills.]
< -Flames of Pride [Skill]
A powerful attack of the Chimera, this ability allows the user to breathe fire while gaining strong resistance to heat, the strength of the flame depends on the user’s willpower and confidence, its strength will temporarily weaken if your mentality wavers.
-Roar of Pride [Skill]
A shout from a great beast. It discourages weak-willed people and brings strength to the user’s allies. Anyone who the user considered to be friends will gain a 10% Attack increase while the opponent will lose their courage to fight, decreasing their attack by 10% instead.
-Fangs of Pride [Attribute]
The inescapable fangs of the Chimera’s serpent, once something gets close to its rear, this ferocious snake will attack. Its fangs are powerful enough to penetrate even steel while anything that’s captured between them won’t be able to escape. This strength can become yours too.>>
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Theodore was a bit depressed that the Chimera didn’t give him any healing skills, it would’ve solve the injuries situation immediately, but then again he didn’t expect it to have any of those skills anyway since from his battle with it, the bite he’d delivered to its front leg didn’t close at all throughout that fight.
He wouldn’t pick the ‘Roar of Pride’ skill because it’s meant to be a team support ability, it was useful for the Chimera that had two other friends it can assist, but for Theo, he wasn’t lucky to have such friends.
This leaves only ‘Fangs of Pride’ and ‘Flames of Pride’, he would’ve chosen to strengthen his fangs—But only if he’s an idiot. “I choose Flames of Pride.” The letters of the skill’s name were slowly being added to the ‘Skills’ list. Once it was finished, Theo could feel a slight burn at the back of his throat which quickly dissipated a few seconds after.
He didn’t choose the ‘Fangs of Pride’ skill simply because he didn’t think it would be needed, since if he evolves further, he’ll naturally gain more biting power. Besides that, having a fire skill to counteract the backlash from his ice magic would mean he could continuously spam spells without needing to worry about his body suddenly giving up due to the cold.
"With the Persistence skill, I don't need to worry even if my mana reaches negative." He thought happily, this basically meant that his magic is about three times as strong as he was still human.
“System, show me the quest menu.”
< The second half of the first main quest has been unlocked.
-Evolve into a mythical creature. (Lvl.35)
Time Left: 18 Hours.
(After completing the second half of the main quest. You’ll be greatly rewarded. Information is hidden by ■■)>>
He still has plenty of time before the deadline, however he didn’t want to waste precious seconds lying around doing nothing, especially since he’d gotten the three times experience points buff from accidentally completing a hidden quest.
After some calculations, he couldn’t help but feel like commiting mass genocide on the ants again since they could give him a maximum of 300,000 Exp if he were to get lucky. Which means if he finds at least three big colonies, he’ll be able to level up around four or five times—From his observation, the amount of experience points he would need per level increases randomly, so if the god that’d reincarnated him could bless him with some good luck…
“Then I can probably evolve and kill two birds with one stone.”
His eyes glanced at his wounds one last time before finalizing his decision, he flicked his tongue before turning left and slithering towards the nearest prey he’d detected.
